“You have a mass in your throat,” he said after examining me, “It looks malignant. And aggressive.” He looked me right in the eye as he spoke, making sure I understood the gravity of his comments. My wife Mary Ann and I sat in stunned silence as he informed us of what needed to be done to complete his diagnosis. As he talked on, my mind took me back to all of those times when I entered burning buildings without breathing protection, and all of the times I worked for hours, unprotected, doing salvage and overhaul in the smoldering remains of fires over the past three decades. Like my peers, I had felt bullet-proof in those days. I had always thought that cancer was something that happened to other people. Not me. Now, for the first time, I was actually afraid for my life.

I was a Run-to-the-Curb type kid. What’s your story? I’ve created a page at RuntotheCurb.com that will feature future firefighters — what I call “Run to the Curb” Kids. This week’s RttC Kids include 2-1/2 year old Collin Manning, son of Williamsville Firefighter Chris Manning as well as a photo of my daughter Kathleen and her friend taken […]

If you are a Fire/Rescue Chief, Commissioner, President, Fire Officer or in a leadership role of a Fire Department or Fire Company, you have the responsibility of ensuring firefighter safety. With the holidays right around the corner, here’s a cool opportunity for your organization to provide something to your members, and support the work of the Safety, Health […]

I stumbled across this post from FireCritic (Fire-EMS Blog Network) and was dumbstruck. I haven’t thought of John Jordan in a long, long time. In May of 1994, as Managing Editor of The Fire Fighter Newspaper and as a guest of VFIS, I and three other local firefighters (Dave Sherman, Jim Guy and Ric Dimpfl) traveled […]

I’m not big on forwarding for the sake of forwarding; or just regurgitating information in an effort to build traffic to a web site. However, my good friend Billy Goldfeder sent out a broadcast yesterday that deserves sharing. His efforts were followed up by a newsletter distribution from the USFA Coffee Break that highlighted similar events. […]

You’ve read my previous references to “Run to the Curb” type kids in “Fortune Tellers” and in my other writings. Now I’ve created a whole new web site just for telling my stories and to give you a place to share your stories too. Run to the Curb.com is a work-in-progress blog I just created […]

Patience is some times not one of my better virtues. I’ve been kicking around the idea of creating an online clearinghouse of recruitment and retention resources for quite some time. Needless to say, it’s an area of the fire service that I’m quite absorbed in but I’ve always waited for someone else to create such a […]

HEADLINE: Johnson City to Explore Adding Volunteer Firefighters http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20091116/NEWS01/911160345/1112/Johnson-City-to-explore-adding-volunteer-firefighters Is it just me or are two worlds colliding here? At the same time many volunteer fire departments struggle to maintain their ranks, their career counterparts are being stripped to the bone in both manpower and operating budget by their community’s and our country’s fiscal crisis. […]

The Exit Row | Tiger SchmittendorfClean the Litterbox[…] places. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to be reminded, as Laurie so perfectly puts it, to clean the litterbox of the hurt my mind has […]
2017-10-31 19:56:39

The Exit Row | Tiger SchmittendorfMeth, Click, Doom.[…] can read his story here, but Scott is literally and figuratively the NVFC’s poster child for Post-Traumatic Stress […]
2017-10-31 13:26:29

The Exit Row – I see in color againThe Exit Row[…] The Exit Row at […]
2017-10-30 21:04:32

The Exit Row | Tiger SchmittendorfThe FDIC Experience: Returning Home[…] Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana have been unremarkable, I’ve shared previous experiences of traveling home from this conference that have had an impact on my outlook on […]
2017-10-30 17:27:55

JohnTaking the Volunteer Out of Volunteering!Paid Volunteer or Unpaid Volunteer, the men and women that serve their community would hardly care less. My Volunteer department is barely Minimum wage here in Ontario. It's not a get rich quick or even considered a pt job. We all do it to help and serve our neighbors in their times of need. I…
2017-06-06 15:38:16